Durham ready for second visit to Lambeau

ALLEN PARK — Kris Durham is perhaps best remembered for his one-handed, 27-yard catch at Green Bay last season.

It was a remarkable grab and certainly brought attention to the Detroit Lions wide receiver who had been elevated from the practice squad due to a host of injuries to wide receivers.

“Last year in Green Bay was my first time playing significant snaps,’’ Durham said Friday. “I had a lot of nerves going, playing really fast, playing out of control at times. Now everything has slowed down for me.’’

Durham will make his second visit to Lambeau Field when the Lions (3-1) play the Packers (1-2) on Sunday.

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This year is much different. Durham made the 53-man roster coming out of training camp. With Nate Burleson out for weeks with a broken arm, the 6-foot-6 Durham has been more involved in the offense.

“He’s got great size, he’s got good hands,’’ coach Jim Schwartz said. “I think that he’s reliable as a catcher of the ball. He doesn’t look like he’s moving fast, but because he’s so long, he can get open, he can get guys deep.’’

So far in four games he has five catches for 102 yards. Last season in four games he had eight catches for 125 yards and a touchdown.

He’s not a high-profile player. Yet.

“He certainly wasn’t a forgotten man as far as our team. The way it comes out, you have Calvin Johnson and (Nate) Burleson’s playing at a high level and a lot of the other guys — there’s only one football to go around. But he’s stepped up in some crucial times in that game, made some crucial catches,’’ Schwartz said.

In the win at Washington, Durham had just one catch, but it was for 33 yards on a second-and-nine. That drive led to a Calvin Johnson touchdown.

Before that one-handed catch last year, perhaps Durham was best known because he had played with quarterback Matthew Stafford when the two were at Georgia.

Still there’s a carry-over.

“Definitely. We’ve played together for a long time,’’ Durham said. “I’ve seen this guy grow a lot from the time we were 17 or 18 years old until now, so it’s definitely beneficial in our relationship on the field.’’

They’ve also had a full offseason and training camp working together.

“This year is a lot different, because he has a real good grasp of the offense,’’ offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said. “Last year we had just elevated him off the practice squad before we played Green Bay the last time. So he was just really learning our offense as we went. This year he has a good grasp of what we’re doing and he gives us a guy that has another year in our offense. So he gives us some experience at receiver.”

His teammates have noticed his development too.

“It comes with the experience with this league,’’ Calvin Johnson said. “The more and more you play, the better and better you become. Seeing him play and learning from his own mistakes, he’s just growing from it and becoming more physical and betting his routes. Seeing the ball all around.”

All that said, two of Durham’s most crucial plays on Sunday were on special teams where he’s on the hands team to play the onside kick.

He recovered two of them late in Sunday’s win over the Chicago Bears.

“I really think his biggest play was getting the onside kick, because they had cut it to eight, it’s still a one-score game, even though they technically had to score twice on that drive,’’ Schwartz said.

“ We’d had a lot of injures in our secondary. We were tired on defense, we’d been on the field, we had turned the ball over on offense. There were a lot of things that were rolling against us and we had to go back on the field, who knows what’s going to happen. But he goes up, makes a very short catch of the ball, goes down, takes a hit right in the back,’’ Schwartz added.

It was a clinching moment for the Lions in the win over the Bears.

But that was last week and Durham prefers to look forward.

“Every time you get an opportunity you have to take advantage of it in this league,’’ Durham said. “You never know when the next one is going to come, if you have a next one. I definitely have a big one in front of me and I have to capitalize on it.’’

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